


Suspicions and Confirmations

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Midnight Verse [28]
Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-23 23:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/932167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little talk about Class, and plotting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Suspicions and Confirmations

Elita One had not been this close to Megatron since before she'd born the designation she led the Cybertronian Autobots under now. If she'd had her choice, she never would have. However, having come to their aid, it was not politically acceptable to not at least inquire if they required further assistance.

"As our forces did not take very much in the way of damage, Megatron, I make no claim on the salvage here," she began, just to keep it on an armistice-related basis. This was not Shockwave //what happened, my nemesis?// to be mocked and stung with his losses. //Even if you do haunt my recharge, after the worst damages I take,// she thought to herself. This was Megatron, and she had little data about his responses. 

"As thoroughly as your team dispatched them, salvage may be a moot point," Megatron said, but with admiration for how thoroughly the femmes had fought. If he had been able to woo the class, would things have been different? Over more swiftly, maybe? Yet, that was a thought for some other day; the Seekers had been more numerous, and the two classes tended to not get along well at all. His optics inspected the four of them, and he then realized that the Terran true-sparked femme was there. That was odd, but not worth great attention. 

From where he had landed beside Skywarp, Thundercracker was all too aware of Midnight, his optics turning her way time and again, even as he effected repairs on Skywarp. ::Pits, what is she doing here?:: Thundercracker wondered across his bond to Skywarp, tightly shielding. 

::Kicking aft, and doing it well,:: Skywarp told him cheerfully, taking perverse pleasure in how worried about her Thundercracker was being. ::You're almost like a first upgrade over her, you know? It's kind of funny to see.::

::I am _not!_ :: Thundercracker protested, glaring at his mate as he kept working. He was not behaving like some silly no-longer-sparkling just because he was worried about her being on Cybertron for this war instead of back in currently-neutral territory!

Elita One smiled at the compliment, but said, her tone even as she could manage, "I hope we were not so wasteful as that -- but then, we were frustrated at the interception of our message."

//Practical. Realized the compromising position and came to keep suspicion off of them. It could still be a trick... She has managed to survive so long under Shockwave's rule here...// Megatron dismissed the thought; Autobots, with few exceptions, were too straightforward in their thinking for that methodology.

::She's looking at you and trying not to be obvious,:: Skywarp commented on that tightly secured band. ::But she is a young-forge; makes sense. Besides, who wouldn't look at you?:: To make his point, he made a very leering assessment of his own, always pleased by his mate's lines and color.

"We should hurry, Elita One," Chromia reminded. "The survey drones will soon come to report to Shockwave why his forces are destroyed."

Thundercracker let their link thrum with satisfaction and pleasure, digits running light along a just-repaired seam. Moving around to check his mate for other damage let him get another quick look at her, his optics raking quickly over her frame. Whole, she was whole and only displaying minor injuries. Excellent for the fight she had been in. 

She looked that way in time to make brief contact, her optics pulsing slightly with a hint of brightness as she caught him looking, before she made herself turn away. 

"May today be a start to what could be done between us for Cybertron's sake, Megatron," Elita One said as she began to fall back to her femmes, proving yet again she and Optimus were forged as one.

"Oh, I have a vision of what Cybertron could be, Elita One," Megatron promised her before sweeping over to gather his troops and leave. The rose-colored femme kept her disappointment contained, and regrouped so the femmes could make a speedy exit.

`~`~`~`~`

Firestar leaned against a wall, waiting for Midnight to come out of her room. When Midnight did, freshly cleaned up from the fight, Firestar smiled at her. 

"Hey... good fight, yeah?"

Midnight smiled back at the other femme, rotating her shoulder to work out a catch in the gears. "Yeah, it was. Pretty different than what I'm used to, with the drones, but it was nice to be able to really cut loose." 

That it had been more than nice to get to see her mech, to be able to fight on the same side with him, she wasn't about to say. 

"You've got some good moves." Firestar cocked her head slightly to the side. "You've fought those Seekers? Noticed you looking that way."

"Yeah, a few times," Midnight nodded -- even as she wanted to kick herself for being that obvious -- and reached back to pat her jet-pack. "I'm one of the only ones that can take them on in their own element, so before the truce, we tangled. Always had better luck taking down the Cone-head set than them, though." 

Firestar nodded at that. "We had to deal with the Rainmakers here and there. Nasty class wars between us and them, you know?" she added, a hint of worry in her tones. "Before the Vos/Tarn conflict. We're both ultra-specialized in what we do, with better mass to energy ratios than most of the other classes."

"What?" Midnight flickered her optics at Firestar, startled. "No, I didn't know that -- Arcee never mentioned it, and... I guess nobody else thought it was all that important?" 

She cocked her helm to the side, interested and more than a little concerned. "Tell me?" 

"Yeah. Come on; I've got some mid-grade and fizz-sticks for them; I'll give you a crash course on why Seekers and Femmes kind of don't get on." //And maybe that will keep you safe; I think I saw something, but maybe it was a trick of the light.//

"Sounds good," Midnight agreed, following her towards her quarters, wondering what _new_ grit in the gears this was going to be. 

Firestar served up two slips of the mid-grade, adding the fizz-sticks to set them bubbling with chemical reaction. It didn't smell nearly as potent as Gears' brew, so maybe it wouldn't kick as hard.

"So the fixed wings, especially the fighter types like Seekers, were made by Primus to be light enough to cope with atmospheric flight, and strong enough to endure space, at least in some cases," Firestar told her. "That meant, at least with the Seekers, a very powerful generator for fields that was supported by a light-frame. Yes, they're tall and have mass, but their plate and frame density is far lighter than a mech of the same height," she explained. "Well, they resented the fact that we kept them from being unique on those lines. We femmes might be small, but we use similar light-density frames, and have over-clocked generators to power our shields and abilities, because we were the original small space workers. As in tight-confines and as in station work; it's why the moons seem better crafted for us than the mechs."

"...have we _always_ just been determined to deactivate each other over the stupidest possible reasons?" Midnight heard herself asking before she could think better of letting the words out, staring at Firestar with her helm shaking in disbelief. "Of all the -- how have we _survived_ this long?!" 

Firestar's fields stuttered in astonishment at Midnight thinking that way. "Limited resources, Midnight, meant that we had to find a way to thin the ranks some. It's evolutionary for niche-rivalries to arise, spiral out, and then settle when population and resources match again."

That... sounded like Prowl, explaining how it had gotten to a point that no one listened to peace. Only Megatron had not let it end in time, and more resources had been destroyed than population.

Okay, that almost made some sense -- biological cycles, she'd learned about those on Earth, watching populations of various animal species rise and fall -- but in this case it was so self-destructive, and so ego-driven! At least with the animals, they didn't seem to be able to reason enough to find other ways, but her kind were supposed to be smarter than that! They weren't supposed to be lost in cross-class enmity that would keep them divided, keep them unable to all focus towards a single purpose, too busy stabbing each other in the backplates to pay attention to threats to the planet or threats to each other.... She kept her faceplates smoothed out, her helm still cocked at Firestar, but this sounded even more foolish and short-sighted than the war she'd grown up in. 

She wondered what Thundercracker would say the reasons were, if he would agree to it being class vanity or if he saw something Firestar had no idea about. She'd have to find out. 

"Yeah, I've seen that happen," she said, not willing to agree that it _should_ happen, but showing that she was paying attention and thinking. "Resource-competition can be kind of awful." 

Firestar nodded fiercely. "That's one reason I'm pretty sure that no matter what the old Buckethead and One-Optic get done on their little war, it's not going to mean the end of fighters like me. Not much left to Cybertron, and if mechs and Seekers and such come back... it's going to be rough all over."

//Oh, poppa, this is _not good_!// Midnight thought, letting out a long stream of exhaust as she thought. If femmes like Firestar thought that, were they really going to get anywhere about restoring Cybertron even if they could hold to an Autobot/Decepticon truce? 

"I guess we'll just have to see what happens?" Midnight offered, writing notes into her long-term memory for her poppa and Uncle Jazz. "I mean, as long as we can keep resources coming in from Earth, things might get better instead of worse again?" 

"We'll have to see, Midnight." Firestar sipped at her drink. "Just... once the war's off, don't be surprised when old class issues lead to some bad rust rubbing off."

She nodded, thoughtful and worried, and settled back to work on her energon. Now she _really_ wanted to talk to Thundercracker.

`~`~`~`~`

"You two seem happy," Starscream said as he entered the room they had commandeered. "Considering your injuries," he added, optics looking over the repair welds Thundercracker had made on Skywarp.

"Good fight, even if I missed most of it," Skywarp said. "You looked good up there, Starscream."

Starscream let himself enjoy the compliment, his optics flaring darker red in satisfaction, and he nodded slightly. "It was that, even though I dislike that we almost _needed_ the assistance from that batch of Autobots. They certainly made things simpler, at least. Surprising, given that many femmes." 

Thundercracker nodded agreement, but Starscream was almost certain he saw -- or possibly felt -- something flicker across his trinemate's faceplates and fields. "Yeah, interesting bunch that came out to help," he said, which did nothing to persuade Starscream that he had seen nothing. 

Skywarp grinned, far wider than seemed necessary, as he considered the foursome that had joined the battle. "Oh, I'd say it was more than interesting. Nice show I got."

"Oh?" Starscream asked, intrigued -- and more intrigued as he saw the way Thundercracker's optics flashed with annoyance. 

::You have to tell him sometime. Especially if you're planning to sneak out and try to see her, glitch.:: Skywarp was being very 'helpful' to make that happen, or so he thought. "Yeah; don't usually get to watch the twin-spawn in action."

"No," Starscream agreed, even as his helm tipped a little more, "we rarely do, but... what made her so interesting this time?" 

His answer came more from Thundercracker's wings flexing and flicking, and Starscream turned that way, arching one optic ridge. 

"...'Warp asked me the other cycle if we were just collecting Autobots this vorn," Thundercracker said, one wide wing flicking again, "so he was paying more attention than usual."

"Collecting?" Starscream asked in a surprised tone, even though the words made him think of his own Autobot, so far away now... and the implication kicked over. "SHE'S your secret among them?!" Starscream demanded, running the ramifications through his processor. Surely, for all they despised the frontliners, there was some way to turn this to advantage.

Skywarp laughed darkly. "Yeah, he took up with the pits-spawned slaggers' own creation."

Thundercracker was laughing at his surprise, his optics sparking with amusement... but the way his wings and fields shifted told Starscream that his stubborn, determined trinemate was in no mood to be argued with. Starscream decided he didn't care enough _to_ argue and let his wings relax into a more careless angle. Thundercracker's relaxed too, and Starscream nodded slightly, even as TC spoke. "Yeah, she's what I've been hiding. I was about to see if I could introduce her and Skywarp when we got called back here -- and now here she is."

"Don't try breaking into their base, Thundercracker," Starscream said casually, coming over to Skywarp to better inspect the repairs. "Let me handle it. After all, surely the Autobots wouldn't be adverse to... cooperative delegations?"

"Sneaky, Scream. Sneaky," Skywarp said as he chased down the idea. "TC with them, or her with us?"

"Hmm," Starscream let the note stretch out, contemplating. "You can reach Thundercracker in an instant, 'Warp, unlike any of their little band... that makes it most logical to offer to send him to them -- assuming you're willing to put up with that much 'honesty' and 'decency', TC?"

"Not my favorite thing, but you're right. Instant communication for us would be a serious advantage, and it's not something they could mimic." 

Skywarp nuzzled up on Thundercracker, hands petting possessively. "Don't like letting you go so far, but... I'll cope. Gotta be sure they're not actually in the berth with Shockie anyway, right? Awfully convenient today...." he added, unaware that Megatron had mentioned his suspicions to Starscream.

"Chromia might be canny enough for that kind of double-cross," Thundercracker said, pushing into Skywarp's hands, even as Starscream could see him flatly not believing the idea. Starscream wasn't sure what to think, given that Skywarp and Megatron had had the exact same thought. 

"We'll just have to watch and see," Skywarp said. "Thundercracker can't be fooled for long," he praised his mate, before pushing up enough to stroke Starscream's cockpit... his fields inviting some trine private time.


End file.
